EVANSVILLE — Protesters gathered along Evansville’s riverfront Saturday to rally in opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration as a third wave of so-called “No Kings” demonstrations occupied downtown streets in hundreds of cities across the United States.
The protests, including dozens in Indiana, come as Democrats grapple with how best to unite an ideologically diverse opposition — the party’s base, independents, disaffected Republicans — ahead of midterm elections that could make or break Trump’s agenda.
In Indianapolis, thousands rallied outside the statehouse; in St. Paul, Minnesota, Bruce Springsteen serenaded demonstrators, decrying the tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city as an “invasion,” and in Manhattan protesters streamed from Columbus Circle to Midtown.
Indivisible Evansville, a local branch of the progressive activist group Indivisible, organized the Evansville demonstration, as it did two previous “No Kings” protests in June and October. Gathered in front of the Four Freedom’s monument alongside the Ohio River on a cool Saturday afternoon, hundreds sang protest songs, chanted and partook in what Indivisible Vice President Erin Gibson characterized as “joyful resistance.”
“I hear a lot of people saying, ‘I’ve never been political — I’ve never been to a protest, and I’m here today,'” Gibson said. “We keep hearing that, and I think it’s because we’re bringing the receipts. This is what’s happening, and we’re able to show people what an authoritarian looks like.”
Organizers said they were still working to get an accurate estimate of the crowds but were confident the showing met or exceeded past demonstrations.
Gibson’s characterization of Trump as an authoritarian seemed representative of the crowd as a whole, many of whom carried signs lamenting, and at times lampooning, the president as a would-be king. Some pointed to Trump’s withering criticism of the judiciary. Others called out his decision to pound Iran with airstrikes after promising on the campaign trail to avoid foreign entanglements. Still others expressed moral outrage at what they described as an immigration crackdown devoid of mercy.
Evansville City Councilwoman Mary Allen, who hopes to win the Democratic nomination to run for Indiana’s 8th District congressional seat come November, made an appearance. Flanked by a row of signs spelling out “No Kings,” Allen directed outrage not just at Trump but the ruling class as a whole — “the billionaire powerbrokers who are pulling the strings.”
“We look around and we see the chaos and the corruption, and the absolute confusion among the people we elected to be making decisions in our best interest, and we see a commitment to destruction, distraction and division,” Allen said.
For Skylar Gentles, a 21-year-old University of Southern Indiana student, immigration was top of mind, though beyond any one policy issue her decision to protest was rooted in a desire to “protect democracy.”
“The government is trying to make it to where college professors will have to tell them what students might not have documents,” Gentles said. “I don’t agree with that.”
Chris Wagner, a 64-year-old Air Force veteran who said he’d been protesting since the 1970s, shared Gentles’ views on immigration and voiced deep skepticism of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against Iran. Democrats would be wise to put aside contentious cultural issues for the moment, Wagner said, to unite the opposition.
“We need to start from some shared common ground,” Wagner said.
A national NBC News poll from earlier this month found that majorities of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of a range of issues, including immigration and the cost of living. A Fox News poll published Wednesday found that 59% of registered voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the presidency. A higher share of voters, 64%, disapproved of Trump’s handling of the Iran war, the poll found.
But just how much importance the No Kings protests should be afforded depends on who you ask. Republican officials have largely dismissed the demonstrations, arguing that while the gatherings may be large they are mostly made up of people who have always opposed the president rather than the newly converted. After No Kings rallies last year, Vanderburgh County GOP Chairman Kyhle Moers described local anti-Trump efforts as “a poor imitation of what’s being done at the national level.”
On Saturday, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson derided the No Kings protests as “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions” and claimed they were being bankrolled by “leftist funding networks.” In response to a wave of No Kings protests in October, Trump declared that he was “not a king.”
“I work my a– off to make our country great,” Trump said. “That’s all it is. I’m not a king at all.”
Other critics lambasted previous “No Kings” protests as largely geriatric affairs: Posts on progressive forums complained of a lack of young demonstrators while conservative pundits proclaimed that “old white people” and “boomers” were the face of the movement.
The high school-age members of the newly founded Student Progressive Union who turned out to protest Saturday took issue with the notion young people had ceded political activism to their older counterparts. The group, which hopes to launch chapters at high schools and middle schools across Evansville, formed after hundreds of students led walkouts in February to protest Trump’s immigration policies.
“We’re here,” North High School junior Natalie Rivera said in an interview after she spoke to the crowd. “We’re here, we’re loud, we’re always going to be here and we’re not leaving… It’s a beautiful thing to see so many youth out here, especially today, and to be a part of that.”
Indivisible organizers said they defined success not in terms of sign waving or chanting but in driving political engagement and, ultimately, voting. To that end, Indivisible members helped protesters check their voter registration at one of several informational booths setup beneath the Four Freedoms monument.
“That emerged from our last member meeting, where people were like, ‘Folks just need to register and vote. We have this problem where people aren’t voting,'” Indivisible President Wendy Bredhold said. “And it was like, ‘Hey, well if you want to start registering people to vote, you can use Indivisible as a platform — we’ll give you all the resources and support you can get.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville joins third wave of ‘No Kings’ protests with downtown rally
Reporting by Houston Harwood, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
